Uncle Si Helps Out Schools, Hospitals, Jews, Blacks
With his brother Donald, Si Newhouse controls Advance Publications, the publishing empire that owns Condé Nast, a long list of newspapers, and countless other media assets. It's a business he inherited from his father. And it's made him one of New York's richest men for decades now, with a net worth estimated by Forbes earlier this year at $8.5 billion. A reclusive figure, Newhouse rarely speaks with reporters or attends events, preferring his top editors (like Anna Wintour, Graydon Carter, David Remnick) and executives (Chuck Townsend, Richard Beckman, David Carey) to talk to the media and soak up the limelight instead. But it's the low-key mogul, of course, who takes home the big checks, which he spends on art (his Picasso collection is reportedly enormous) and donating money to various philanthropic concerns. Which causes exactly?
In 2007, Newhouse donated a total of $11.98 million to charity via the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, including major gifts to Syracuse University ($1.85 mil.), Lincoln Center ($800K), United Jewish Appeal, ($700K), Memorial Sloan-Kettering ($600K), New York-Presbyterian (500K), the United Negro College Fund (325K), Fresh Air Fund (250k), and Metropolitan Museum of Art (240K). You can review the complete list of donations—all 19 pages!—below.